1 of 1Cleat Replacement


I am pretty sure my cleats are original equipment and at one point they were painted black. The paint has worn off and the aluminum is pretty pitted. I searched high and low to try and find cleats in stainless steel that looked as close as possible to the original ones to preserve the look of the boat. I eventually found some on Ebay for a great price. The holes did not quite line up so I had to do some filling and drilling.
 
6" cleats
 4" cleats
 8" cleat (bow)
 You can see how thick the gel coat is Epoxy ready to fill holes
Here are some pictures comparing the original cleats to the new ones. You must admit that the new ones look sharp! The first step was to remove the old ones and I used the same procedure as when I removed my stanchion bases. First I take 4 vise-grips and clamp them to the nuts from the bottom. Then I use a heat gun to warm up the screws and caulk from the top. I can then easily unscrew the screws and pry off the cleats. I cleaned the gel coat with acetone to remove any stains. Next, I put some tape underneath to block the holes so the epoxy would not flow out. The good news is that the holes looked very clean and the core was nice and dry.
 
Holes filled
 New holes drilled
 Old holes filled and covered with gel coat New cleat installed
 Backing plate for bow cleat, before cleaning

Now I just fill the holes with epoxy, leaving enough room on the top for some gel coat patch. After the epoxy has cured I put some gel coat patch in the hole and fill it until it is over full. I let that cure and with a razor, shave off the excess so I have a nice flat surface. I then use rubbing compound to polish it up. It's not perfect but most of it will be covered by the new cleat. The cleats did not have backing plates except for the bow cleat. They did have washers and the combings at this point are very thick, at least an inch. I drilled the new holes and did the same countersinking trick as with the stanchion bases to form a bead of caulk around the edge of the hole. Apply the caulk to the screws the same way, put them in and screw them down.
 

Bow cleat backing plate after cleaning Re-installed backing plate New bow cleat
I took the time to polish up the aluminum backing plate for the bow cleat so it looks much nicer on the inside. This project was a nice easy (relatively) and it resulted in a major improvement to the looks of the boat.